“Of course, it’s convenient and easier to serve you, but I feel like I’m not fulfilling my duties.”

Mel smiled softly at Lin’s honest words and said,

“Don’t feel that way. You’re doing more than enough. I can’t do without you, Lin.”

Lin clasped her hands together and looked at Mel with sparkling eyes. Her whole body seemed to express how touched she was, which briefly lifted Mel’s spirits.

“By the way, I saw the head maid seeing off the tailor. Could you follow them? We don’t know what they might say.”

“Ah, that’s right! I’ll go right away.”

Lin exclaimed “Oh!” and hurriedly opened the door and left.

Finally alone in the room, Mel undid the buttons that the tailor had tried to undo earlier. As she did so, her dress came half off, revealing fair bare skin in front of the mirror.

“……”

Mel bit her lip slightly as she looked at her back in the mirror. On her back was a large scar that couldn’t be fully covered even by the dress. A deep, large laceration running vertically from the shoulder blade to the end of her waist. It was so prominent that other smaller scars were hardly noticeable in comparison.

“Haa.”

Mel let out a small groan, feeling the cold sweat that had started to flow since Lin left. Just looking at this hideous scar brought back the searing pain from that time.

“How did that lowly thing get hold of that? Kill her immediately, right now!”

The voice of the late Duke Ivanstein, filled with chilling murderous intent as he gave the order, came back vividly.

The sound of pursuing footsteps, breath rising to the tip of her chin, pain as if her body was being split in two, and dizzily shaking vision. Recalling even the air of that day, Mel finally collapsed on the spot, gasping for breath.

“Huff, huff, gasp……”

Having the fear of death etched into one’s body was not a good thing. The feeling of constantly suffering from pain that one could never get used to. Sometimes, when she’s reminded that this place was none other than the Ivanstein mansion, she found it difficult to even breathe.

“This… quickly, in the tree hole in front of my quarters… I must deliver this to the young master quickly…”

Mel’s throat closed up, just like when she had barely managed to speak those words while swallowing the metallic taste of blood rising in her throat. Mel’s wounds were still frozen in time on that day when she escaped from Ivanstein. Even though she had put on the shell of a princess, here, she was still Mel the slave.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re alive, you survived.”

Mel straightened her dress again. She tried her best not to be conscious of the scar on her back. She couldn’t break down here. She had people to protect, and she still had a chance to survive.

Mel gritted her teeth, comforting herself that she couldn’t crumble before the ghosts of the past when she had endured for so long.

* * *

Mel lay in bed, pulling the blanket up to her chin. Perhaps because her body was burning up, the inside of the blanket felt particularly warm. Her shivering body gradually calmed down little by little.

“I’m fine, so you should go back to your quarters now.”

“Are you really okay? Your fever is still very high.”

“I’ve taken medicine, haven’t I? All that’s left is to get some good rest.”

Lin kept fussing with the blanket.

It was Lin who had found Mel barely managing to change clothes on her own and half-sprawled on the bed, battling a fever. Perhaps because she was so shocked, Lin hardly left Mel’s side until late into the night. Despite having many other tasks to do.

Mel smiled softly but firmly removed Lin’s hand from the blanket.

“Will you let me rest now?”

“If you feel dizzy or unwell, you must call me. Just pull this string here, okay?”

“Okay.”

Lin could hardly take her eyes off Mel, who nodded with a clear face. Although the resident doctor of the mansion said it was just a cold, Lin simply couldn’t put her mind at ease.

Even when she was captured as a prisoner, her limbs bound, and about to be presented to the old Emperor in Harttenberun, the princess didn’t break down. Even when she could barely eat one meal a day.

“You must endure well. That’s how you’ll protect me from the head maid, right? It’s no exaggeration to say that the lives of my family depend on you, Your Highness.”

“Is it okay to put such pressure on a sick person?”

“I just want you to know.”

Lin grumbled a bit, adjusted Mel’s blanket one last time, and finally left the room.

This was how Lin expressed her concern. She was more soft-hearted than expected and surprisingly quick to become attached to Mel.

“Haha.”

Left alone, Mel let out a small laugh.

It was quite amazing that she had found someone she could rely on to some extent in this unfamiliar place. This was an achievement Mel had earned herself. And this was in the Ivanstein ducal family, no less.

In the past, Mel had been afraid here, anxious, spending days that constantly tightened around her throat. Only those fleeting moments with Genoa and her mother had kept Mel going.

To have such a peaceful state of mind in the Ivanstein mansion was something unimaginable back then.

“……”

Mel’s smile faded as she recalled old memories. She glanced once at the closed door.

The boy who had been Mel’s support in those old days was still in this mansion, but he was no longer by her side.

The news of her illness had probably reached Genoa’s ears as well. The head maid had insisted that Genoa couldn’t pay attention to mansion matters due to the ongoing schedules following the Emperor’s funeral. She said the report would probably only go up to Bane.

But that was just the head maid’s bluff, not knowing Genoa’s personality. Genoa had been meticulous to the point of being thorough since he was young.

He would probably try to grasp everything happening in the mansion he owned. As he had said in their previous conversation, wasn’t Genoa the one who even controlled the rumors leaking from the Ivanstein ducal family? So, contrary to the head maid’s words, she was certain that Genoa knew about her condition.

‘He probably doesn’t have any obligation to look after me just because I’m a bit unwell.’

She knew. That the Genoa from those days and the Genoa who had become Duke Ivanstein now were clearly different people. After all, hadn’t Mel herself become a different person when she appeared before Genoa? Nevertheless, the emptiness that brushed past her heart was probably due to the severe fever. When the body is sick, the heart tends to weaken as well.

Mel closed her eyes, trying not to fall for that trap. She should rather try to sleep quickly and get plenty of rest. Bringing down the remaining fever and regaining strength was the wisest way to quickly fill the empty heart.

Just as she was about to fall asleep thinking that, there was a click, the sound of someone turning the doorknob.

“……!”

Mel’s eyes flew open as she looked towards the door. Silver hair shimmered brilliantly, reflecting the soft candlelight. Duke Genoa Ivanstein. At this moment, the busiest man in the Raon Empire was standing before her eyes.

As he entered the room and his eyes met Mel’s, who was looking at him, he smiled gently and harmlessly.

“How did you… Shouldn’t the memorial service be in full swing?”

“I didn’t expect you to welcome me, but seeing such an astonished look gives me a new feeling.”

He approached, speaking in a voice tinged with laughter, either sarcastic or complaining, it was hard to tell. Mel just blinked slowly, staring intently at Genoa’s face. She wondered if her fever was so high that she was seeing things.

“I heard you were sick.”

“Well, yes, but……”

She hadn’t expected him to actually come visit just because she was sick. No, she had been subconsciously certain that he shouldn’t.

Mel nodded slowly, but her face showed that she couldn’t understand the situation at all as she opened her mouth. Her expression was quite comical, causing Genoa to clear his throat and tighten his lips.

“I was curious too.”

“About me being sick?”

At Mel’s dumbfounded question, Genoa silently curled up the corners of his mouth. Mel’s face seemed to ask, ‘Did you come to mock me in my sickly state?’

Genoa recalled the conversation he had just had with Bane at the Imperial Palace.